Being The Person / Church God Has Called Us To Be

We are living in unprecedented times, facing unprecedented challenges. If we are to be successful in obeying and carrying out our Lord’s commission we must prayerfully and examine the Great Commission and where we are in fulfilling it.

Some of us have been Christians for a long time, but instead of progressing beyond the novice level, we’ve ended up repeating the same mistakes over and over.

The definition of insanity: Doing the same thing(s), the same way(s) over and over and expecting different results!

Much of the church has become content with a Christian experience far below that demonstrated in the New Testament (we have even developed intricate theologies to justify our inferior experience(s)).

Spiritual maturation can only occur when we realize our spiritual poverty and powerlessness and then replace it with Biblical theology and praxis.

Going To Church Today

Some of the reasons people go to church today

Some go out of a sense of duty

Some go because it’s the thing to do on Sunday morning

Some go because their family has always gone to church

Some go because it’s a good place to do business or to make business contacts

Some go because it helps their image in the community

Some people go because they like the feeling they get when the sun shines through the stained glass windows onto the robed minister who leads them in the same formal liturgies week after week (these are the people who often comment how “beautiful” the service was on a particular Sunday)

Some go because their friends go, and church has become the center of their social life

Some go to be entertained (they like the music)

Some go to be enlightened

Some go to hear a great speaker

Some go to learn the Bible

Some go to please their mate

Others go to find a mate

Still others go to get away from a mate

Having been in the ministry for 44 years, I have learned there are as many reasons why people go to church today as there are people who go to church.

Going To Church In New Testament Times

It was much more difficult to go to church in New Testament times

It could cost you your job, your property, your family, or even your life.

It has been that way in much of the world throughout most of the 2,000 years of church history.

It’s still that was in some places in the world today, but not in America (yet).

Why did they take the risk?

First, they came to hear Jesus and to be healed by Him

Luke 5:15

Luke 5:15 (ESV)

But now even more the report about Him (Jesus) went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear Him and to be healed of their infirmities.

Luke 6:17-19

Luke 6:17–19 (ESV)

And He (Jesus) came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch Him, for power came out from Him and healed them all.

I used to go to church to learn the Bible, and later to teach the Bible. How different that is from from the beginning when people came to meet a Person

Second, they came to worship God together

Of course, it is possible to worship God alone and anywhere.

But there is a spiritual dynamic that occurs when in faith the people of God come together corporately in sacred space to express their unrestrained affection for God.

To put it simply, we enter into the Manifest Presence of God (sacred space) when we sincerely and exuberantly sing to Him our thanks and praise in the power of the Spirit

Ps. 100:1-5

Psalm 100:1–5 (ESV)

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into His Presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, He is God!

It is He who made us, and we are His;

we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving,

and His courts with praise!

Give thanks to Him; bless His Name!

For the Lord is good;

His steadfast love endures forever,

and His faithfulness to all generations.

4. God’s Manifest Presence was so manifest during corporate worship in the New Testament church that Christians gladly risked their lives just to be a part of that experience.

Third, they came together to be equipped to do the work of the ministry.

Ephesians 4:11-13

Ephesians 4:11–13 (ESV)

And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

The Lord NEVER sent apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds (pastors), and teachers simply to do the work of the ministry.

Their primary responsibility was to prepare God’s people for works of service.

This resulted in the Body of Christ being edified, strengthened, built up.

The Body of Christ will be spiritually anemic and unable to fulfill the Great Commission as long as only a few people are doing the work of the ministry.

This New Testament Pattern for ministry was established and set by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

If anyone was ever capable of doing all the ministry alone, it was the Lord Jesus Christ

But instead, He trained twelve apostles, who in turn trained others to do the work of the ministry.

Fourth, people came to church to be strengthened, that is, built up in Christ

1. At the conclusion of Paul’s discussion about the gifts of the Spirit and their use in the church he wrote:

1 Corinthians 14:26

1 Corinthians 14:26 (ESV)

What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

2. Was this building up meant to occur only through the ministry of one person?

Absolutely Not

3. Paul said that everyone was to bring something to church with them that would contribute to the edification of others present.

4. What could / should you bring?

5. Paul’s list only has five things in it:

a hymn

a word of instruction (teaching)

a revelation

a tongue

an interpretation

6. The New Testament church service was never meant to be a one-man show

Conclusion

If you lived in the New Testament times, you prepared:

your hearts to come to church,

your heart to worship,

you came expecting to be equipped for ministry

you asked God to give you a supernatural gift of the Spirit (spiritual gifts are not natural abilities) so that you might be used to strengthen someone else.

1 Corinthians 12:4-10

1 Corinthians 12:4–10 (ESV)

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

1 Corinthians 14:1a

1 Corinthians 14:1 a(ESV)

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts...

e. This was the New Testament way of going to church.

The New Testament church was not only sacred space, the dwelling place for the numinous - Manifest Presence of God, it was also a place of encounter with Holy Spirit. People not only worshipped God in church, but they were equipped to hear Him, and after hearing Him, they were empowered by Him - as His imagers - to represent God - to re-present Him - to give something to someone that would build them up.

If you really desire to be a New Testament, Spirit-filled Church, your desire is a sign from heaven that the grace of God has come to rest upon you. God Himself put that desire in you. Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

His enabling grace (and mercy) will remain on you through your journey toward being the person (and the church) God has called you to be.

C. S. Lewis once said that if only the will to walk is there, God is pleased even with our stumbles. [C. S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters (New York: MacMillan, 1961), 39].

If that is true (and I believe it is), then perhaps if only the will to hear is there, God is pleased even with our errors and missteps.